I've seen the Da Vinci Code

I mean, I watched the movie.

I read the book when it came out, and I was impatient to see it on screen. Not that the "revelations" were that interesting (if you are in the "plot" thing, read "Foucault's Penduluum" by Umberto Ecco, and think that there's a link between the success of the litterature about this subject and the ever lasting truth "everyone loves a conspiracy"...), but because, well, it was a good book, with suspense, action, "coups de théâtre", etc.

(Still, I imagine that one day, the French President would come to the UNO and say : "Well, we actually discovered that indeed, Jesus bloodline was in France, but, *cough*, with the Revolution, you know, we were a little upset, and well... All of his descendants went to the guillotine... Sorry, you can put the blame on the French once again...")

The movie "Da Vinci Code" doesn't fit the expectations I had... That's an understatement.

Oh, I had a good time. The movie theatre was half English, half French, and there were some good laughs. There's a lot of French speaking in the movie, and the dialogues in French were sometimes over - dumb... I wonder who they hired for this part... Most of all, the final revelation, so great in the book, seems really silly in the movie... But Paris Office of Tourism is really gratefull. Not like the security of the Louvres, whose guards try to stop people praying to the glass pyramid...

Anyway : there was something that really disturbed me. It's technical.

The last scene in Scotland with Sophie Neveu does not sound good. I mean that the sound is not good. There's wind in Tom Hanks dialogues. As we can see the trees moving in the background, I guess that it was a windy day, and that the sound take was ruined because of it. They used a basic treatment, a noise gate, and broacast it just like that. Amateur.

The thing that I don't understand is that, generaly (and obviously in 150 M $ movies), the producer decides to re-take the sound later, in a studio (post - synchronization). I guess that Tom Hanks wanted too much for this one, but it gives a sad picture of movie production mowadays in Hollywood : it's not a movie but a simple product : let's not pass too much time and money in "details".

I wonder how long people will satisfy themselves with such philosophy.

About the sound engineer's dilemna, have a look at this manifesto.